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main reference

respectively, a glowing streak in the sky (meteor) and its cause, which is a relatively small stony or metallic natural object from space (
meteoroid) that enters Earth’s atmosphere and heats to incandescence. In modern usage the term
meteoroid, rather than being restricted to objects entering Earth’s atmosphere, is applied to any small object in orbit around the Sun having the same...

meteor showers

temporary rise in the rate of meteor sightings, caused by the entry into Earth’s atmosphere of a number of
meteoroids at approximately the same place in the sky and the same time of year, traveling in parallel paths and apparently having a common origin. Most meteor showers are known or believed to be associated with active or defunct...

physical sciences

Smaller than the observed asteroids and comets are the
meteoroids, lumps of stony or metallic material believed to be mostly fragments of asteroids and comets. Meteoroids vary from small rocks to boulders weighing a ton or more. A relative few have orbits that bring them into Earth’s atmosphere and down to the surface as meteorites. Most...

small bodies

...small bodies populate the solar system in vast numbers and include the mostly rocky asteroids, or minor planets, the predominantly icy comets, and the fragments of such bodies—commonly called
meteoroids—over a continuum of sizes down to microscopic grains known as interplanetary dust particles or micro
meteoroids. The term
small body is sometimes restricted to objects that can...